


The Fine Line

by obiwankenboneme



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-24
Updated: 2016-03-24
Packaged: 2018-05-28 21:04:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6345088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obiwankenboneme/pseuds/obiwankenboneme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Obi-Wan is a professor, and the reader is his TA, studying for their PhD. There's a fine line between a colleague and a student, but Obi-Wan sometimes forgets that the reader is both. With all that added stress, it's a struggle to stay above water for the reader. Obi-Wan needs to learn how to straddle that line, and quickly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Fine Line

**Author's Note:**

> Obviously this is gonna be a slow burn fic, mainly because it would not be proper if not slow burn. Along with that, it's totally inappropriate to have relations between a student and a professor. Anyway, I loved writing this and can't wait to get some more in for it!

Struggling with the papers in your arms, you nudge open the door to the classroom you TA in, smiling at Professor Obi-Wan. Seeing you, he rushes over to take some of the papers from your arms, setting them down on your desk.

“Thanks, I’ve been carrying those around for five minutes,” you gasp, taking a seat once you’ve set down the rest. Folding your arms up towards you, you grin cheekily. “I think I’m getting more muscles than you Professor. It might be time for that arm wrestling rematch.”

Kenobi snorts, fixing you with a look as he lets his fingers glide over all the paperwork. “All these are the term papers, right?”

You nod in response, closing your eyes and breathing deeply. You loved working with Professor Kenobi, don’t think you don’t, but having to grade some forty-two, ten page long term papers, all based around the same subject was both mind numbing and painful. Stretching your sore arms, you hiss at the feeling of pulled muscles. Obi-Wan notices, dragging his chair over to you and taking one of your arms in his large hands, rubbing the sore muscles.

“You really shouldn’t be carrying all these papers alone. It’s dangerous, and you could have really hurt yourself,” Obi-Wan mumbles, focused on your arms. His hands are so warm, making fire lick under your skin.

Trying not to let it show that his being so close and touching you was making you flush, you merely let sarcasm take over. As he moves on to your other arm, you smirk. “How could I have really hurt myself, Obi-Wan? I’m fairly certain the worst that could come of it is papercuts, and it’s not as if I don’t have plenty of those already.”

To prove your point, you hold out your hands, letting him see the multitude of colorful child’s Band-Aids you were wearing. You had been through war with these things, it was only fair someone else saw them. Shaking his head, Obi-Wan rubs your hands between his, laughing under his breath. A part of you is tempted to ask him to kiss them better, but you crush it down. This was your favorite part of working with Obi-Wan; the part where you two were completely alone for a few minutes of silence, and he treated you like an equal and not just his TA.

Chatter from outside the door makes Obi-Wan stand, abruptly dropping your hands and moving back over to his place in front of the desk that he always stood behind while teaching. You huff, rather put out that he didn’t take a little more time to pay attention to you. While the two of you could never be more than TA and Professor, it always was nice to have something close to that. As close as the two of you could get with him being your boss technically.

Focusing back on the papers on your desk, you get ready for the class as student spill in and find their seats. Obi-Wan’s voice sends sparks down your spine when he begins to talk, and you sigh internally. _You’ll never be more than this._

* * *

 

Handing back papers, you smile at the students, hoping that they would be fine with the grades they got. None of the papers were absolutely _awful_ , but by the time you reached the twenty mark, you were about to pass out on top of them. All of them were the same and as dry as the desert. You start to drag your fingers through your hair when Obi-Wan wanders over, snickering at the pile in front of you.

You sit up straighter, pretending like you weren’t drained to the bone. He couldn’t see you like that, or else he’ll think he’s overworking you and make you take a day off. A day off from being around Obi-Wan was about as much torture as you could handle.

“Seems Y/N here had their work cut out for them, huh class?” he teases, making your lips pucker. _If he makes a comment on how I look like I swallowed a lemon, I swear I’ll-_

“Looks like you swallowed a lemon too, eh Y/N?”

“Not any thanks to you, Professor Kenobi. He just dropped them all on my desk and asked me to grade them. That’s _forty-two papers_ to grade over the course of a week. Mind you, they were also all the same topic, so that made it even more fun,” you comment.

The students all laugh quietly, looking through their papers and over their grades. Some looked beyond pleased, while others were looking like they might actually cry. Inhaling, you focus back down at the stack in front of you, handing them to the few students still standing in front of you. You hiss as you gain yet _another_ paper cut, but keep your mouth shut about it.

Obi-Wan clears his throat to gain everyone’s attention once all the papers are handed out. You’re taking a seat at your desk when he begins to talk, and you curse him under your breath for what he says next. _How could he do this when he knows midterms are in two weeks?_

“There will be the chance to make up any points lost by going to the writing tutors and having them look over your paper with you. Once that has been done, bring that copy back to class and Y/N will read over it again to see if you earned a higher mark. If not, it won’t affect your grade, as it will be the highest grade on that paper that’s taken into account. That’s due by the end of next week. Have a good day.”

He dismisses the class, students talking animatedly about what they would do differently or what they liked best. Grades are thrown back and forth, and you hear someone mutter something nasty about you. Groaning, you drop your head onto your desk with a _thunk_ , wanting so desperately to just sink into the earth. Obi-Wan raps his knuckles on your desk top, making you scowl even more.

Raising your head, you don’t say a word as you stand and collect your things. “I really don’t appreciate being treated like a child, Professor Kenobi. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got _classes_ to get to, as well as my own _work_. Have a nice day.”

You zip up your backpack, tossing it over your shoulder and leaving the room, not noticing how Obi-Wan was staring at his feet guiltily. Some days he found it hard to remember that you were also a student. You were his TA working on your PhD, not one of his undergraduate students and most certainly not one of his colleagues. He wasn’t allowed the same liberties he had with his peers with you, but he also couldn’t consider you a student, and it felt like he was always walking a tight rope.

Taking a deep breath, he fixes his tie and collects his things to head to his next class. Perhaps tomorrow would be better.

* * *

 

It wasn’t, and neither was the day after that. Or the day after _that_ one. Or even the _week_ after that day. Basically, by the time the deadline came around for the revised papers, Obi-Wan had yet to make up for what he’d done, and you were still pissed. Not only by his lack of apology for what he was doing, but because midterms were coming up, so you were even _more_ stressed. It could not possibly get any worse than this.

Between this job, school, and the part time job you had for making money, you were wearing yourself down to almost nothing. The papers piled high on your desk when you come in just before class starts put a hole in you, but you collect yourself and sit down, getting ready to teach the class. Your fingers are deftly looking through you backpack for the lesson plan when you freeze. Bending over, you almost rip the zipper off in your search for the plans.

“No. No way. This can’t be happening,” you whisper to yourself, searching frantically through your bag for the papers you had prepared for the class today.

When you can’t find them, you feel the tears start pooling, burning behind your eyes. The slightly choked off sob you let out alerts everyone in the class to you, and you stand up, shaking as you excuse yourself. Running out of the room, you break down in the staff office, hands over your face as you shake with sobs. _How could this be happening? You had it right there on your desk!_

A calloused hand touches your bare shoulder, making you jerk away as you try to collect yourself. Wiping frantically at the tears, you refuse to look at Obi-Wan, who’s squatting down beside you, attempting to get you to face him. When he finds that you are deliberately not doing so, he grips your chin in his hand, tilting your face up towards him. The tears start falling harder when you see the look of concern on his face.

He swipes at the tears that are dripping off your chin, hushing you as he pushes your hair back. You can’t stop crying though, and the affectionate nature makes it all the worse.

“I-I’m s-sorr-sorry Pr-pr-professor. I-I ha-had th-the p-pl-plan, bu-but I for-forgot i-it!”

Your sobbing doesn’t stop, and Obi-Wan sighs, grabbing some tissues and helping you clean yourself up. After a while, you finally are calm enough to take care of yourself, thanking him for the tissues as you blow your nose. Wiping at your eyes, you sigh, hands shaking in your lap.

“I’m sorry, Obi-Wan. I h-had the lesson plans, but I left them on my de-desk. I’ve just had a very ro-rough week, and I’m so s-stressed out, and seeing the papers just punched a h-hole right into my chest. Then I found out that I-I didn’t have the lesson and I…I just couldn’t handle it,” you whimper, bottom lip quivering.

Obi-Wan takes a seat beside you, his long legs splayed out across the floor. You always had a moment of complete awe when he was around you due to his height. While he wasn’t extremely tall, he was still slightly taller than yourself, and it shocked you. Coming back to the present, you blink when he takes your hand in his. It feels nice to have someone beside you, and you rest your head on his shoulder, closing your eyes. He lets out a sigh, rubbing his thumb in circles over the back of your hand as he holds it in his.

“I would like to apologize for _many_ things. For treating you like a student when you are my TA. For piling those papers on you when you are, in fact, also a student and have work and classes, same as the ones in my _own_ classes. Also, for not realizing how much you are struggling due to my neglectful nature as a professor,” he confesses.

Obi-Wan takes a deep breath, closing his own eyes for a moment. “It is very difficult to find a common ground between student and colleague, and while I understand you are my TA, it is…a very thin line that I walk. I will try harder to understand where you are coming from, so long as you promise me that you will communicate with me when things are becoming too much,” he concludes, tilting his head to see you better.

Nodding, you smile kindly, raising your eyes to look at him. Something passes between the two of you, but he’s looking away now, and it’s gone. Obi-Wan stands, holding out his hand and helping you up once you’ve taken it. Wiping away the last few tears under your eyes, he smiles.

“I let the students go for the day since it seemed you needed my attention. How about we go back to the classroom and dive into those papers. I feel like it will go by much faster and be more fun with two people working on them,” Obi-Wan offers.

You laugh, nodding your head and letting him lead you back to the classroom. While there was a fine line between what was right and wrong in this thing with Obi-Wan, you felt like there was something lying under it all. It was like you two knew each other in ways that no one else did. It was nice.


End file.
